Generic lighting control consoles serve the purpose of controlling lighting systems, such as they are used in theaters or concert stages, for example. Routinely, these lighting systems comprise a plurality of lighting devices, for example stage spotlights, wherein the lighting devices on their own can in many cases be changed between a plurality of lighting states, for example different colors. These different lighting states of the different lighting devices are stored and controlled in the lighting program of the lighting control console by means of programmed parameters.
Known lighting systems can thereby comprise up to several thousands of lighting devices. To be able to control such complex lighting systems, generic lighting control consoles are equipped with a digital processor, which allows for a digital data and signal processing. To store the program data, provision is furthermore made for a digital memory, which makes it possible in particular to archive lighting programs.
To program the lighting program and to control the lighting program during its application flow, respectively, the operator must input the most different operating commands. These may be, for example, the selection of a certain lighting device and the setting of a certain lighting parameter, respectively. To input these operating commands, mechanical operating elements, for example push-buttons, rotary controls or slide controls are available at the known lighting control consoles. The operating commands assigned to the individual operating elements can thereby be changed by means of suitable menu changeovers so as to be able to program and control complex lighting programs appropriately.
To provide the user of the lighting control console with more mobility when inputting operating commands, provision was made for lighting control consoles, which can also be controlled via a remote control. The user thus has the ability to also be able to input operator inputs at the remote control. These user inputs input at the remote control are subsequently transferred to the lighting control console via a data interface and are processed appropriately at that location. For the most part, the operating concept of the known remote controls thereby corresponds to the operating concept of the input elements at the lighting control console. This means that provision is again made for push-buttons, rotary controls or slide controls for the known remote controls, so as to be able to input the operator inputs. These operating elements can thereby also be realized on a touch screen by means of corresponding symbolization, for example.
The disadvantage of the known utilization concept with regard to the input of operator inputs at a remote control is that a largely intuitive input of the operator inputs is not possible. In many cases, the remote controls are furthermore relatively small so as to enable the mobility of the remote control so that the typical operating elements can be installed and illustrated, respectively, on the remote control only in a very small size.